


A Quiet Place

by OverTheMoonShine



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: A Quiet Place AU, Actual Science Genius Changkyun, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Fluff and Angst, HyungHyuk are in the background, It's Changki against the world, Light Angst, M/M, Optimistic Ending, Radio DJ Kihyun, Some mentions of suicide and swearing, The other three are briefly mentioned - Freeform, but banter so much banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-06-25 10:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15639081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverTheMoonShine/pseuds/OverTheMoonShine
Summary: "So, what are you five?""Excuse me?""Given your complete lack of distrust for strangers and your love for loud noises and explosions, it's very difficult for me to believe you're any older than that."In a world where any form of noise could quite literally end up killing you (think: decapitation by giant alien bug monsters), Kihyun is sick and tired of the silence and breaks into a radio station to start broadcasting his own talk shows. All's fine and well (as well as living in a dying world can be), until a series of explosions take over Seoul.





	1. words are vibrations

It starts off as a joke, or perhaps a suicidal wish. To be honest, it’s difficult to tell the difference anymore. 

Because the thing about living in this silent world is that Kihyun would rather not. It’s not that he isn't interested in surviving, since truth be told, he's pretty damn good at it (how else would he still be here, alive, when the rest of Seoul seems to have been wiped out in the first wave of attacks?).

It’s just, he's bored. Really really bored of keeping quiet, keeping still, darting around and being so afraid of making any sound that he might as well just not be alive in the first place. 

Even so, the first time he does it, his hands are shaking so so hard, his voice cracks on the first word he speaks. "H - hello everyone, this is Kihyun, broadcasting live from S - s - seoul," he speaks into the microphone, he can feel his lisp coming out more prominently than usual. 

Closes his eyes and counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - because that's how long it takes for one of Them to reach. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 -

"Wow. I guess -" he pauses for effect, but also pauses because he's not used to speaking so much. Not anymore. "I guess, it seems like we're in business everyone. Sucks for you guys, you're going to be stuck with me for a while." 

It becomes a regular thing. Every day, without fail, he sneaks back into the radio studio and talks. He talks about what he sees during the day ("Nothing much."), what he does ("Nothing much."), and what he's feeling ("Nothing much."). There’s no set time for how long he chooses to run his broadcast for. Sometimes, he speaks for hours and hours, until his eyelids grow heavy and he's half-slumped over the table. 

Sometimes, he just switches on the microphone and sits in silence. Just listens to the feedback of the static echoing softly through the wires, broadcasting to whoever that may still be out there, that's brave enough to switch on their radios for something as useless as his mindless chattering. Has he gotten anyone killed because of this show? Has he given anybody's location away because they were unlucky enough to catch his broadcast while hiding away?

He knows pursuing this train of thought is madness, but he can't help his mind from wandering down the path anyway. Even so, he can't stop coming back, can't stop his hands from flipping on that ON AIR switch and pretending for a moment, that the world hasn't gone to shit yet. 

Other times, the worry turns inwards. His broadcast lasts just a minute. Those are the moments when he's sure his time is up. All that confidence is just a ruse, because truth be told, he's terrified of dying. 

Those are the moments he remembers the blood and the carnage, the cowering underneath a desk, squeezing his eyes shut and praying that They wouldn't come his way. 

But he doesn't particularly like those memories, so he tries not to dwell on them too much. Denial is bliss, which makes his radio studio the Nile river. 

Because in this radio studio, with its supposedly sound-proofed walls, he knows he's safe. There’s nothing that can get at him here. They can't hear him hear - maybe, no one can. After all, for all the months he's interned at the radio station before the world ended, it's not like he managed to learn everything from the audio engineer. Maybe that bright ON AIR sign is just a lie, and he's just been a fool talking to himself.

"So today, I've prepared something special for all of you." 

It’s a Thursday, and if it were a year ago, he would be having dinner with his housemates at the university dorm. Minhyuk would be recounting his day at an obnoxiously loud volume with too much enthusiasm and energy for the small apartment to contain, and Hyungwon would be rolling his eyes and pretending not to pay attention, a small smile tugging at his lips. It would have been pizza and chicken night, and he would have been surrounded with so much noise and laughter and warmth and - 

No, let's not go there. Not today. 

“It’s been about two months since I started doing this, and I guess God must really love me or something, because somehow or other, I'm still here. Although of course I am, I'm great at this survival thing, you guys should really take notes from me." It would be nice to imagine that somewhere, someone out there, alive just as he is, rolling their eyes at that statement. "As a gift to all of you, I’m blessing you with my otherworldly angelic voice.” 

After stuffing themselves full, they would tumble into one of those cheap karaoke bars that dotted the streets that led to their university. The street would be lit up by terribly garrish neon signs, and they would grab a bottle or two of soju along the way. 

He had gone back to the karaoke bars the other day - it was all wrecked, just like everything else in Seoul. But buried deep within the rubble were a few CDs of backing instrumentals from songs long ago. It didn't take much thought, the labels on the CDs were enough to convince him that these were worth saving and he'd tucked them into his bag. There was no way he could play this in his apartment without attracting any unwanted attention, but it was a waste leaving them there. Someone’s heart and soul, their history, went into producing this song. 

That was precisely what Kihyun couldn't stand - the obliteration of music and memory. Losing everything to this dead silence. 

The studio has a CD player, so he slips in one of the disks. It’s labelled _Crush_ , and he turns up the volume, loud, just as the first bars of _Beautiful_ starts. The irony of this being one of his go-to songs on karaoke Thursday isn't lost on him, he knows this song like the back of his hand. 

But there's no time for such self-pitying thoughts to creep in, not when the music is playing, not when he can close his eyes and pretend that he's back in his room, pretending to be a world-famous singer. 

It’s been so long - it's been too long since he's had music surround him with such intensity.

There’s nothing left to do but to sing. 

-

When it first starts, Kihyun is ready to race back to Ilsan to make sure his parents are okay. He’s thrown some clothes into a duffle bag, checked the timings of the trains leaving the day after, and withdrawn as much cash as he could from the teller. There’s no telling what would happen, and he feels safer having money on him. 

The television blaring in the living room is an endless stream of explosions and gore, of shaky footage and screams before the screen cuts out. No one seems to understand what's going on nor does anyone have any concrete information, and Kihyun thinks it's ridiculous how the stations continue broadcasting the attacks. It’s just causing mass panic and hysteria - which he supposes, he's caving into as well, because all he can think about is _I need to go home, I need to be sure that eomma and appa are alright._  

Outside the dorm room, sirens are going off every ten minutes or so. There’s so much noise, from the streets, from the television, from his own wild thoughts running a marathon at top speed in his head. The world was a different place back then, and looking back, Kihyun can only hold back bitter laughter at how foolish and naiive they all had been. 

 _Can’t you see, it was the noise that was killing you all?_ he wants to yell at all of them in the past. But that’s ludicrous – who would have thought that these creatures hunted you down based on sound? Whoever would have thought that speaking would have gotten you torn apart in a matter of seconds?

As he's about to book his tickets on the next train home, his mother sends a text, _we are fine. stay in seoul. it may be safer there._

His fingers are shaking as he types out his reply. There’s so much adrenaline in him, he doesn't know what to do with all this nervous energy, _i'm about to get the train tickets home_

_kihyun-ah, we are fine. don't worry._

_can’t help it. i’ll come home._

_don't worry about us. we will move to somewhere safe._

_stay safe okay?_

_let's meet up with this is over._

_okay. i love you._

_i love you too._

Three days later, as he's still paralysed in indecision, it's reported on the television that Ilsan has fallen. Whatever _fallen_ means remains ambiguous because as far as anyone knows, the creatures haven't seem to have made any claim over territory nor have they launched into the usual take-over spiel that anyone even vaguely familiar with alien movies would recognise.

In fact, They seem more interested in carnage and spreading general terror. From first-hand camera footage, it doesn't even seem like They're killing for food. The violence just seems senseless and mindless, and Kihyun finds this infinitely more terrifying.

He’s clutching his phone tight in his hand, _don't worry about us. we will move to somewhere safe_ \- his mother's message burns bright on the screen. "From eyewitness accounts, a locust of creatures swarmed Ilsan this morning," the newscaster is saying on the television in front of him.

"While we are still trying to establish what's happening inside Ilsan, we are all prepared for the worst."

_let's meet up when this is over._

-

No matter how the broadcast starts, he ends it the same way each time, "Eomma, appa, if you're safe where you are, please don't come to Seoul to find me. As you can hear, I’m fine here. I’ll look for you when this is all over."

"Minhyuk, Hyungwonnie, if you're out there somewhere, meet me at our apartment at 2pm. I’ll be there waiting."

It’s been more than a few months since he's started his broadcast, and every day, he's as alone in their old apartment as ever. After the broadcast on Ilsan happened, Minhyuk had offered to stay behind with Kihyun. “It’s fine, I know they’re alright. We’re still texting and everything,” his friend says, his eyes soft but serious. 

“I’m fine, you should go back with Hyungwon,” Kihyun’s answer is clipped and short. This is the seventh time they’re having this conversation in the same day, since the news about Ilsan came out. He’s tired of this debate, doesn’t want the pity of his friends.

Minhyuk scoffs, and jabs a finger in his direction, “I know what you’re trying to do. Don’t try to be all self-sacrificial or whatever!”

“Look, I’ll be here when you guys get back. You need to look after him too right?” Kihyun hasn’t missed the looks his best friend shoots the younger boy when he thinks Hyungwon isn’t looking. If it isn’t for the fact that the world seems to possibly be collapsing around them, he’d invest more energy in making fun of Minhyuk - but it seems like the time for that is long past. “Are you honestly fine with letting the frog go there and come back by himself?”

“He’s smarter than the both of us,” Minhyuk answers, but there’s no strength in his statement – and Kihyun knows he’s won.

“Just go with him, alright?”

They leave for Gwangju a few days later, although only because Kihyun purchases the train tickets behind their backs and forces them into their hands. “Stay safe, alright?” he says to them, his voice wavering. There’s so much he wants to say to them, and yet, to say any of it would make it feel like this is the last time they’d be seeing each other.

“We’ll come back and find you,” Minhyuk says, and Kihyun knows his best friend is thinking the same thing. To say their goodbyes now would make this too final, so the three hug each other close and try not to think of how this could be the last time the three of them are together.

“Wait for us,” Hyungwon mumbles into Kihyun’s shoulder, and he squeezes his eyes shut, tries not to cry.

“Better not be late, assholes.”

-

"I don't know about you but recently, there's been someone going around causing explosions all about Seoul. No offense, and mind my language, dear listeners, but how is this dickhead not dead yet? Also, what is he thinking, seriously?" Kihyun starts one day. It’s true - over the past week, Seoul has been wrecked by a series of loud explosions, terrifying in its juxtaposition against the normally silent city.

What’s perhaps more terrifying than the sudden explosions are the scuttling of Their footsteps, light and unhurried, towards the noise. He knows well enough by now to associate this sound with death, it doesn't seem possible to escape Them, not after They've heard you.  

"You’re probably not listening, but you need to slow down," he continues, wrapping the microphone cord around his finger. He’s been broadcasting for about four months now, and has come to think of the studio as his second home. "Whatever you're trying to achieve, I’ve no idea how you're still alive but can you please think about the people who may be living near the buildings that you're blowing up? What if they get caught in your crossfire? How can you account for their lives?"

As he speaks, he feels that little pin-prick of guilt start bubbling up again. How many people has he doomed because of this broadcast? How many have accidentally tuned in, trying to get an emergency radio signal, only for his dumb voice to give their location away, to get them picked off by the senseless swarm?

"Think before you act, I don't know what you're trying to do. I’d like to give you the benefit of doubt and believe that you're an intelligent person since you've survived for this long too, but just give it a bit of thought alright?" It’s embarrassing how his voice cracks a little. He feels like a child again, trying to talk his way out of something bad his teacher's caught him doing. Kihyun laughs, it comes out a little cold, a little bitter, and he doesn't like the way it sounds.

Although, to be fair, he doesn't like how a lot of things in the world sound like now.

"That's enough lecturing for today, Kihyun out."

-

Despite what he may have said on his broadcast, he's curious and the one thing he hates is feeling like someone knows more than he does. So he does what any logical person would do in his situation, he goes out exploring. It’s hard to pin down exactly where the last explosion was at, but Kihyun figures he can walk towards the general direction of the next blast, and hope he comes across some fresh rubble that seem to match the intensity of the noise.

So when an explosion goes off the day after he makes up his mind to investigate, he takes a deep breath, reminds himself _hey, you've made it for this long so far, what's the worst that could happen? (the answer is decapitation and unimaginable pain but who's keeping track)_ and sets off in the direction of the loud sound. As he runs, he's careful to avoid stepping on debris, cautious of tip-toeing around broken glass and scattered autumn leaves. There’s no telling how far away any of Them may be but he's not going to take any chances.

He runs as quick as he can, as quick as he dares - through the empty streets and quiet neighbourhoods. This road is a familiar one, it's the path he used to take towards his university and he tries not to let his thoughts wander down that route. There’s no point thinking about where Minhyuk and Hyungwon may be.

It's silly but he thinks he would know if something had happened to them, that the universe would send him a sign. Because as long as the two were together, they'd be alright. He has to believe that, he would go crazy if he doesn’t think this to be true.

Perhaps it's because he's lost in memories, running on auto-pilot, that he lets his guard down. Because when he turns the corner, he suddenly finds himself face to face with two of Them. He can feel his face turn pale, and it takes all his courage to remain standing.

They don't seem to have noticed him, but They seem to be searching for something. _Please please please don't have heard me_ , Kihyun freezes, stock-still, barely daring to breathe, and cursing his past self for thinking this investigation had been a good idea to begin with. _You should have just stayed at the studio_.

One of Them turns around, facing his direction, and he's so terrified he thinks he may just pass out. Surely, surely, They can hear his heartbeat, racing wildly, traitorous, and giving away his location.

 _I could run away_ \- but no, he's seen what happened to people who tried to escape. Their footsteps are too loud, too easy to detect. He’d be cut down before he even had the chance to make it to the next street. It crawls closer, tilting its head slightly to the left and right as if trying to pin-point the location of something.

It sends out a series of clicks and clacks, and Kihyun remembers all the news reports discussing how They used a form of echolocation to compensate for Their lack of sight. _I should run, I should run, Ii will. One, two, thr -_

But before Kihyun can get his legs to move, the world explodes into noise and both creatures go crazy. They lunge towards a pile of rubble, Their scythes swinging wildly in the air, screeching as they do.

He takes this chance to dart away, sprinting into the nearest building and up a flight of stairs, bursting into the room that faces the street so he can keep track of where They are. They're still rampaging in the street below, and he realises that the sound is coming from the pile of rubble. It sounds like static, high-pitched feedback, the kind that happens when you put a mic too close to a speaker.

From up here, it looks like They're in pain. They're throwing their heads around, movements sluggish, screeching as They do. He’s never seen them like this before, but it doesn't make any sense. Kihyun watches breathlessly from the second floor, as the two creatures twist around, seemingly anguished, on the floor below.

After what seems like an eternity (but could have just been a minute or two, who can tell?), the two creatures _run away_. They sprint in the opposite direction, the pile of rubble (there's probably a radio or a set of speakers underneath, Kihyun realises that by now) still blasting that same high-pitched sound. "No way," he breathes out, watching Them dart down the street, racing as if their lives depended on it.

He pauses. It was almost as if this were a trap, luring Them in only to scare Them away. But to what purpose? Kihyun waits, whoever set this up would probably need to appear sooner or later to get their gear. He makes his way down the stairs, hiding behind the door, in the shadows, not wanting to be seen before he can decide if this person is a threat or not.

Ten minutes pass, and Kihyun is starting to think that perhaps he's wrong, maybe this was a weird coincidence. He’s weighing the options - should he go back to his apartment tonight or go to the studio? The experience was so strange that he feels the urgent need to share it.

Maybe that's why he keeps going back, he misses that feeling of talking to someone. _You’re pathetic_ , he tells himself, moving towards the exit when there's a flash of movement on the street.

It's a teenager, around his height, buried in a giant black hoodie, with a huge backpack. In his hands is a complicated-looking device, full of wires, that he's holding carefully. He can't tell if this boy is older or younger than him, but the way he carries himself is one full of purpose. Someone on a mission.

Kihyun watches as he bends down to sort through the rubble, eventually pulling out a set of speakers from underneath the wreckage. He dusts it off, but doesn't switch it off. _This idiot has a death wish_ , Kihyun thinks to himself, just as the boy starts fiddling with his device.

 _Oh god, don't tell me he's going to set another bomb off right now._ Before he can think about it, Kihyun barges out onto the streets and with a strength that he didn't know he possessed, grabs the boy by the back of his hoodie and hauls him backwards into the building.

Possibly because he's caught by surprise, the boy freezes up, and lets Kihyun shove him into the empty room - which, the survivalist part of Kihyun’s mind can't help but note as extremely counter-productive to staying alive in an apocalyptic world full of dangerous creatures and desperate human beings.

"What the fuck do you think you're trying to pull?" It’s hard to sound aggressive when you're speaking at a volume barely above a whisper, but Kihyun figures his death glare is enough to convey the depth of his meaning. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

They're face to face, and the device is still clutched tight in the boy's hands. The boy's mouth is set in a firm line, and he matches Kihyun’s glare with a steely look. Kihyun’s seen this look before - it's one that he sees and recognises in the mirror every day. That feeling of having nothing more to lose, yet not knowing how you can gain from sense of that giving up.

The boy doesn't say anything, just stands there, staring back.

"In case you didn't notice, I’m waiting for a fucking answer," Kihyun doesn't know why he's so angry, but he feels something akin to rage coursing through his veins. It’s funny because it's been ages since he's seen another human being, and he thought he'd be relieved and grateful to finally see another living face - but here he is, swearing his mouth off to a he's bodily dragged off the street.

There is another long long pause between them, before the boy finally replies, at a volume barely below a whisper, "I heard a rumor."

"What?" his answer comes out sharper than he intended, but the boy barely flinches.

"Of how to crush Them," There is venom in his words, and Kihyun has no doubt that this boy truly believes that he's figured it out.

Kihyun suppresses a snort. "Yea, I’m sure."

The boy rolls his eyes, "You saw what happened just now. But I don't really care if you believe me."

"Well, I care if you're messing up this city and fucking things up for everyone."

"What for? it's not like there's anyone left around for it to matter anyway," the boy shoots back, fierce, a touch too loud for Kihyun’s liking. In the few silent seconds after, they're both tense, trying to hear if any of Them had picked up on their conversation.

_9, 10, 11, 12 - safe._

The boy blinks rapidly, hard, as if there's something caught in his eye, but he doesn't look away. For a split second, he resembles Minhyuk, in his stubbornness to back down for something he believes in. That dumb intensity in their gaze that proves that they'll stand up for their opinions until their dumb dying breaths - which in this case, literally it could result in this stupid dumb boy's dying breath.

Damn his soft tender heart.

"Follow me," he says, getting up and gesturing for the boy to come along.

For the first time in their conversation, the boy looks hesitant, as if thrown off by the twist in events.

Kihyun nods towards the door, "Well, I have a place where we can talk properly. Do you want to come along or not?"

The boy remains silent.

Kihyun rolls his eyes and shrugs, the universal gesture for _suit yourself_ , and turns to leave.

It takes a few seconds before he feels the boy moving to follow him. _This may be one of the worst ideas you've had so far Yoo Kihyun, but what's the worst that could happen right?_

For the whole journey back, the boy lags behind him at a careful distance. Kihyun marvels at this boy's trust. _How has this boy stayed alive for that long with such seemingly terrible life skills?_ He would never follow random strangers back to their hideouts. But then again, maybe he was the idiot, taking a stranger back to his own hideout. For all he knew, the boy could be one of those crazies that popped up in droves at the start of all this shit that sacrificed themselves and everyone else around them by screaming and screaming.

As they near the studio, Kihyun has the urge to blindfold the boy. Isn’t that what superheroes did when they didn't want you to know where their base was located?

He tilts his head towards the building, _this way._ The boy quietly follows, doesn't even seem to be looking around. _Well, there's no turning back now_ , he thinks wryly, pushing open the door to the radio station.

-

“Here we are." They're inside the recording studio, with the door closed safely shut.

The boy startles, "Say that again?" His voice is deeper than Kihyun had thought it would be.

"I said, here we are."

The long walk back has helped him to calm down and now he no longer feels as pissed off as he had been back in the building. Right now, he's mostly just genuinely curious and very very tired. It’s been an incredibly long day and all he wants is just to go to sleep and revisit his favourite dream in which everything is normal and he's surrounded by his friends and family.

The boy's eyes widen in awe, and that's enough to make him look 5 years younger. _Maybe I shouldn't have been that much of a bitch to him, he's literally a little puppy -_ and then stops himself from continuing that highly unnecessary train of thought. _You’re just starved for human interaction._

"You - you're him, aren't you?" the boy asks. There’s something different about his expression, something open, hopeful even.

"I'm me?"

"On the radio," the boy presses on, miming a pair of headphones with his hands. "Kihyun - uh, Kihyun-ssi, every day."

For all his attempts at playing it cool, it’s impossible for Kihyun to hide the look of surprise on his face. "You know me?"

"It's hard not to when you're the only radio station still playing,” the boy has a sheepish expression on his face, and Kihyun is finding it harder and harder to remember why he was so angry with him in the first place.

"You tune in?"

"All the time." his answer is so unashamedly honest, and Kihyun can feel a blush creep across his cheeks. It’s such a cliched reaction that the cynic in him can't help but roll his eyes at how he's behaving. The first cute boy that he meets in this disaster movie of a world, and he's all ready to make heart eyes and trade couple necklaces. _Come on man, control yourself._

The boy seems to mistake Kihyun’s silence for something else, because he hurriedly continues, "You can call me Changkyun."

"Okay, Changkyun-ssi, can you tell me what you were trying to do then?"

"My dad was - is a scientist. He was in America when it started, and he said they discovered something, a way to beat them." As he speaks, Changkyun seems to grow more confident and excited. It’s evident that this is something he's thought through, as if he's rehearsed this speech in his head many times. "Since their main mode of perception is through their hearing, what if we could interrupt that somehow? If their hearing is so sensitive, there are bound to be certain frequencies that could cause physical damage to them."

He has this careful way of deliberate way of talking, and Kihyun tunes out for a moment, content with just listening to the sound of another human being speaking. _It’s been so long, I could literally drown in his words._ It doesn’t help that Changkyun’s voice has this deep timbre to it, which maybe in another life, could have helped him be a DJ or an audiobook reader or something like that.

“Like I said, I don't care if you believe me or not. But you saw what happened there just now, didn't you?" Changkyun is looking at Kihyun expectantly, and Kihyun realises that he hasn’t registered most of what the boy was saying. _Focus Kihyun, don’t be the dumbass now._

"No, actually, I didn’t,” he replies coolly, crossing his arms. Whatever Changkyun is saying seems to be too good to be true. How could a solution to this terror fall so readily from the sky? And if it were that simple, why hadn’t anyone discovered it yet?

Changkyun pauses, clearly not expecting Kihyun to be so doubtful. For all his bravado, it was obvious that he was hoping that Kihyun would agree with him. “Okay, I made this device,” he starts again, and pulls out the box of wires and buttons that he retrieved from the street before. “It’s a radio transmitter, kind of. Broadcasts white noise at different frequencies.”

“And you’re saying that this box is the solution to everything right now?” It’s hard to keep the scepticism out of his voice, particularly with how evident Changkyun seems to believe in his theory.

“Pretty much. I’ve been using it to test out different frequencies,” he toggles with the different buttons, as if tuning the device. “I think I just need a couple more weeks and maybe it’ll be perfect.”

Kihyun nods, more as a way to fill the silence rather than in actual agreement. He steals a glance at the clock (still functioning for some reason, although he’s sure the batteries would run out one day). It’s 8.45pm, way past the time Kihyun likes being out on the streets, particularly when street-lights no longer work. “Right, anyway, it’s getting late. Do you have somewhere you stay at, or…?”

Changkyun blinks at him, tugs at the strap of his backpack, looking almost nervous. “Um, all my stuff is in here.”

“Great, you can spend the night here then,” Kihyun says, the words coming out of his mouth before he has time to think through his proposition. _Oh my god, what did you just say._ The other boy’s eyes widen, and he starts to say something, but Kihyun cuts in, trying to sound more nonchalant than he actually feels, “It’s dark out. It’s fine.”

There’s a short pause, then Changkyun smiles, and Kihyun swears he hasn’t seen something as adorable in a very, very long time. _Get a grip, Yoo, you’re being extremely embarrassing,_ “Thank you.”

He shrugs, “It’s no problem at all.”

-

It’s later on at night, the two having settled in at separate ends of the studio. In a moment of foresight, weeks ago, Kihyun had stashed a few sets of comforters, sleeping bags and blankets in the studio, on the off chance that he would ever need to crash at the station.

Despite the fact that sleeping at the studio would have been infinitely safer, Kihyun hasn’t been able to bring himself to fully move out of his old apartment. He knows it’s silly and superstitious, but as long as he’s still in the apartment, Hyungwon and Minhyuk would return to him, someday.

On the other end of the studio, he can hear Changkyun still fumbling around with his device. The volume is turned down low, but there’s the soft hum of static in the air. It’s incredible to think that that could be the answer to this goddamn apocalypse, but Kihyun can’t bring himself to believe it. Hope is a scarce resource in this dying world, and he can’t spend it on silly ideas from strangers - no matter how endearingly passionate they may seem.

They had exchanged little words after Changkyun accepted the offer, with Kihyun speaking only to show the boy where the blankets were, and where he could rest. It’s funny because Kihyun had imagined he would end up chatting non-stop with the first person he meets after months of being alone, yet he feels tongue-tied, awkward after the spontaneous invitation.

He takes in a deep breath, and calls out from across the room, “So what are you, five?"

_Of course, you couldn’t start the conversation like a normal friendly human being._

“Excuse me?” Changkyun sounds more confused than affronted, evidently not expecting Kihyun to speak to him, and definitely not expecting that to be what he chooses to break the silence with.

“Given your complete lack of distrust for strangers and your love for loud noises and explosions, it's very difficult for me to believe that you're any older than that." _This is exactly why Minhyuk and Hyungwon say you’d have been friendless without them._

Changkyun scoffs, but there’s a joking lilt to his reply, "Are you this rude to people you've just met?"

"I'm just stating facts."

"I think I liked it better when I only heard you on the radio. You're too harsh in real life."

Kihyun snorts, but there’s a smile forming on his face.

"And for your information, I'm 18."

"Wow, a real baby."

"We're the same height."

"That's _hyung_ to you."

There’s a deliberate pause in the conversation, as if Changkyun is weighing the odds of what he’s going to say next, “You can’t be older than me. You’re a hamster.”

“What?" Kihyun sits up sharply, turning to face Changkyun. There’s a triumphant glow around him, as if he’s just won an argument.

Changkyun raises his hands in surrender, but cocks his head to the side, smirking. “You mean, no one has ever told you that before?”

“Brat!” Kihyun takes a pillow and flings it across. It hits the younger boy squarely in the chest, and he topples backwards in surprise, shrieking as he does. Perhaps it’s because he would have never imagined such a strange strange sound from the boy or perhaps it’s because this entire situation was just ridiculously ludicrous, but Kihyun bursts into uncontrolled laughter.

A beat passes before he hears Changkyun join in, and now they’re both laughing, even though honestly, there isn’t really anything to be laughing about. But now that they’ve started, it seems like they can’t stop. And as Kihyun’s doubled over, wheezing, for the first time since the world’s ended, he thinks _maybe there’s still some beauty in this world._

-

“If you don’t have anywhere to stay, you can always crash here,” Kihyun says the next morning. Somehow or other, they had ended up chatting most of the night away - the laughter having broken the ice. “I don’t think they allow minors to stay on their own anyway.”

“I’ve been doing fine, haven’t I?”

“I don’t think stalking around back-alleys and blowing things up count as fine, but sure,” Kihyun replies, although every cell in him is screaming not to let the boy go off on his own. But that’s not entirely out of the ordinary - Minhyuk and Hyungwon did always say he had a bad habit of parenting and nagging anyone around him. “Besides, if you stay, you get to see how a Yoo Kihyun radio show goes.”

“Really? You’d let me watch?”

“Wow, when you put it _that_ way.”

“Hyung, please! I’m a child,” Changkyun’s face falls in a pout and his sentence ends in a whine. Kihyun feels his heart literally skip a beat - yup, totally, totally ordinary behaviour. He knows it’s not wise to grow attached to someone (a stranger, to be exact) so quickly, but he can’t help it.

Changkyun is cute, he’s easy to talk to, and smart. Honestly, so smart - from their conversation the night before, he’d learnt that the boy had been in America with his father for a while, skipped a whole bunch of grades before coming back, and was already a year into a double degree of Engineering and Literature at Seoul National University.

Engineering and Literature? Honestly, who even does that.

(“They’re both about the appreciation of languages, just in different forms,” Changkyun had explained, at Kihyun’s incredulous expression.)

He would be intimidated, if it weren’t for the fact that Changkyun also knew all the steps to TWICE’s Cheer Up (something he enthusiastically demonstrated after very little prompting), cried at least 7 times the first time he watched _Kimi no namae wa,_ and once threw up after eating too many chicken wings at a speed eating competition.

“So you admit you’re 5?”

Changkyun narrows his eyes at him.

“Yea, but sure, you can sit in on a show. Maybe if you behave yourself, I’ll even let you say something on air.”

“If I _behave_ myself, huh?”

“Do you even know what you’re saying?”

“I’m sorry.”

And just like that Changkyun becomes a part of the Yoo Kihyun show, although to be accurate, he becomes a part of Yoo Kihyun’s life. He sits in most radio shows, usually only saying _hi, uh, this is Changkyun again, wow, the weather is great today, huh?_ or venturing into a bad joke if he’s feeling particularly adventurous.

“Please excuse the baby, he hasn’t learnt quite how to speak yet,” Kihyun smoothly carries on, ignoring the squawk of protest from the other end of the the table.

It’s strange how easily they fall into a routine: scouting for supplies in the morning, their boots careful and soft on the ground; radio show in the evenings; talks late into the night, both light and heavy, feeling like they’re the only two people left in the world, despite desperately hoping that they can’t possibly be.

“Do you think we can ever go back to the world from before?” Changkyun whispers one night.

“I don’t know, it seems impossible that we ever would. But I’m glad I found you.”

“That was incredibly cheesy.”

“Yea, that’ll be the last you see of me ever trying to be nice.”

“Aww, you know you can’t resist me.”

“Are you wriggling your eyebrows right now?”

“Why? Oh my god, does that turn you on?”

“No thanks, I’m not into children.” 

It takes two weeks before Kihyun is ready to show Changkyun his apartment.

Before this, they’d spent their afternoons apart, Kihyun waving the younger boy off when it was 1pm. He had thought it would be difficult - all those remnants of his old life, the constant reminder that he still doesn’t know where Minhyuk and Hyungwon are, but Changkyun just puts an arm around him, and waits with him, sitting in the barren room until it turns to dusk.

“I know they’re still out there somewhere,” Kihyun says, in the dark, later that night. It’s hard to even imagine a world where his two best friends aren’t around anymore, and Kihyun feels a nameless terror seize him. “It’s just - ugh, it’s so like them to be this late.” 

Changkyun shifts closer. It’s been a few weeks since they’d pushed their sleeping bags together, sleeping side by side now. “They’ll find you, don’t worry.”

“I miss them so much.”

“I know.”

Of course, there are also days they don’t spend together.

Kihyun would be lying if he didn’t admit that those days feel fairly emptier than the others. Sometimes, he hears explosions off in the distance on the other end of Seoul - and he counts the seconds, his heart racing, feeling so nauseous he thinks he’s about to throw up, until the boy comes back, dusty but safe.

The words are always on the tip of his tongue _what are you doing, please don’t do anything dangerous, you don’t need to prove anything_ but Changkyun’s eyes are always bright with victory when he returns, and Kihyun can’t bring himself to say anything to ruin his mood. So he avoids the topic and says nothing.

After all, silence is good, silence is golden.


	2. thoughts, are magic

“What do you miss most about the old times?” Changkyun asks. He’s spinning around one of the studio chairs, idly looking up at the ceiling; Kihyun in the seat next to him, flipping through an old magazine they’d picked up on their morning scavenges. There’s music playing over the studio speakers, Changkyun’s battered iPod (“I couldn’t leave it behind. It felt wrong.”) hooked up to the system. 

It’s been a few months (three, four? - it feels like Kihyun has known him his whole life) since Changkyun had moved into the studio. His backpack sits at the foot of his sleeping bag, clothes spilling out from the unzipped top. About a month ago, Kihyun had noticed that he’d stopped diligently packing his bag every morning, as if preparing to leave at a moment’s notice. And even though the slight mess does bother him slightly, the seeming permanency of such a sight anchors him. The studio could be their home.  _ Maybe new things could still bloom in this world. _

“Music, definitely,” Kihyun answers, without hesitation.

“Me too,” Changkyun laughs. “Actually, hyung, I’ve something to admit.”

“That you’re scared of the dark? It’s okay, Kyun, you’ll get over that fear when you turn 7.” The joke’s so long running that Changkyun doesn’t even bother acknowledging it anymore. 

“I’ve heard you sing before.”

“Oh?” Kihyun looks over at him. That was entirely unexpected.

“On your show.”

“Right, I’ve done that maybe three or four times?” One of the covers he had been most particularly proud of was his rendition of  _ Hyeya _ . In fact, he had been practicing for a talent show organised by his university - and as much as Minhyuk and Hyungwon made fun of him for signing up, they’d also helped him through the song, patiently sitting through each practice rehearsal in their living room, pointing out what he could have done better, where his voice was shaky.

Changkyun’s ducked his head down, avoiding looking at the older boy, “I liked it when you sang. It made me feel things.”

“Woah, calm down,” Kihyun raises two hands. “I know I’m irresistible and all, but that’s a little forward of you.”

“Sheesh, stop exaggerating,” Changkyun huffs, pursing his lips. There’s a slight blush across his cheek, and that messes Kihyun up a little. 

“You can go on complimenting me if you want.”  _ You’re just seeing what you want to see, _ he chides himself.  _ It’s only because you haven’t talked to another human being in ages. _

“No thank you, I can’t think of a single thing that’s great about you,” he answers, sticking out his tongue.

Kihyun sighs deeply, “I cook, I clean, all for this disrespect?”

“We’re literally eating instant food every night.”

“Prepared with my blood, sweat and tears! Kids these days, terrible.”

“You’re so embarrassing sometimes.”

“But you love me anyway.”

“Yea, I do,” Changkyun’s answer so comes quickly, so without any hesitation that for a second, with all the wishful thinking that’s been done on his part, Kihyun is sure he’s misheard him. But Changkyun is no longer looking at the floor, is looking directly at him. His gaze is both indecipherable yet expectant, and Kihyun suddenly finds that they’re a little too close to each other, the room’s a little too small and he can’t breathe. 

_ Cue all those terrible movie tropes, you’re just seeing what you want to see. _

Laughing nervously, Kihyun turns away to fiddle with the knobs on the station console, turning down the music playing in the background. “Come on, it’s time to start the show.”

He doesn’t look at Changkyun again, until he’s slipped on the pair of headphones he always wears when he broadcasts. It doesn’t really do anything apart from making him feel really cool, so essentially, it’s the most important accessory in the whole studio. The younger boy is still watching him, his expression as inscrutable as ever, and Kihyun feels like he’s trapped. 

“Kyun, you want to start the show?” he asks, almost breathless, pushing over the microphone to him.

A beat passes before Changkyun looks at the microphone in front him, as if lost in contemplation, “Sure. But if I start, you need to catch up.”

“That makes no sense.”

Changkyun just smiles, and reaches over to flip ON AIR switch. “Hello everyone, this is Changkyun taking over your airwaves today. Congratulations on living through the second winter of this new world, since it looks like the frost will be coming to an end soon. May spring bring warmer, brighter days, full of new beginnings and happiness. Even cherry blossoms can grow in a silent world, so there’s still some beauty to be found, am I right? But that’s enough from me, because I can see Ki-hyung about to yell at me for talking about the weather again. So now it’s all up to him!”

He pauses, faces Kihyun, still as unreadable as ever, before raising an eyebrow. “Over to you, hyung.” 

-

Kihyun shouldn’t be surprised when it all comes to an end. It’s been too good a life he’s been leading in this dead-end world, and in all honesty, if he hadn’t been so deliciously drunk in the novelty of Changkyun’s presence, he should have seen this coming earlier. 

Changkyun comes back one day, grinning from ear to ear. There’s a patch of dirt running down the side of his face, and the sleeves of his jacket are white with dust, but he doesn’t seem to notice any of it. “I did it, hyung. I figured it out.”

“Hmmm?” Kihyun absently replies, but he knows what the boy is referring to. There’s a swooping sensation in his stomach, as if the ground’s starting to give way underneath his feet.  _ It’s too soon, I need more time. _

“The transmitter, it’s done,” Changkyun’s walking over, the device in his hands. It looks unchanged since the first time Kihyun saw it. But what does Kihyun know? “I tested it out today, and it did more than just scare Them off. One of the bugs actually just dropped and stopped moving.”

“It stopped moving?” His voice comes out weird, but the boy doesn’t seem to have noticed. He’s too excited, and Kihyun feels sick for hating how happy he looks, how afraid he had been of this day coming. 

Changkyun pulls up a chair, wheels it over next to Kihyun, and flops down on it. “It just fell over, didn’t get up or anything, even after I switched this off.”

“You mean, you walked over and looked at it?” 

“Yea, and it was completely still!” he laughs, clapping his hands together. Kihyun tries not to stare, tries not think that maybe this will be the last time the two of them will be sitting in the studio together. “It was dead, actually. I threw a few rocks at it, and it still didn’t get up. Not even after half an hour, I just sat around watching it.”

_ There are so many more things I haven’t told you yet, _ but the words are stuck in Kihyun’s throat, and all he can do is parrot after the younger boy, “You threw a few rocks at it.”

“I just - wow, I can’t believe it!” Changkyun is glowing, laughing. Spinning around in his seat, it’s as if a maniac energy has taken over him, and Kihyun has never felt further away from the boy than he does right now. 

“Are you okay, hyung?” All traces of laughter are gone, and Changkyun is looking at Kihyun worriedly. At this moment, Kihyun realises how much he hates, just fucking hates, this world they’re living in. Nothing good can survive in this vacuum, nothing can ever bloom in this desert. The two of them, and whoever else left on this god forsaken planet, will always just be blindly groping around in the dark, hoping for some way out. 

But there will always be nothing apart from this never-ending silence.

“What were you thinking, Kyun?” the question comes out of his mouth before he can even think it through. 

“What was I thinking?” Changkyun repeats the question. From his slightly widened eyes, it’s evident that he hadn’t been expecting such a reaction from Kihyun.

Kihyun knows he needs to stop talking, he should leave the studio and go for a walk to calm down, before he says anything he regrets. That’s what Minhyuk and Hyungwon used to tell him when he lost his temper,  _ “Ki, no offense, but you’re kind of a bitch when you’re pissed off. You mean well but you don’t realise how hurtful you are.” _

He tries to take in a deep breath, but all he can think about is Minhyuk and Hyungwon, lost somewhere, dead, possibly, probably. All his fault, because he had bought them tickets, had waved them off at the platform. Changkyun, on his fool’s quest, about to join them. Their bodies around him, cold and pale. He can’t be the only person left in this world, he can’t be alone again. Kihyun blinks hard, pushes back against the pressure building up behind his eyes, within his chest.

“Hyung?” 

It’s as if Changkyun’s voice flips a switch within him, and before he knows it, he’s standing up, shoving his seat violently backwards, almost yelling, “You could have been killed! It may not have been dead, it may not even have collapsed because of whatever you did. Why are you going around taking risks like that?”

“But it worked.”

“That’s not the point!”

“Then tell me, what exactly you’re trying to say?” Changkyun is quiet, rational. He’s still in his seat, looking up at Kihyun. And that makes the whole conversation a million times worse, because Kihyun knows he’s letting his emotions spiral out of control. 

_ I just want you to be safe. I don’t think I can lose anyone again.  _ Yet, Kihyun can’t bring himself to say any of this, barely managing to meet Changkyun’s steely gaze. It chills him, how he’s never seen Changkyun like this before, not even the first time they met - was that really just a few months ago?  _ Please don’t leave me. _

"I thought you, of all people, would understand what I’m trying to do.”

"No, please enlighten me on how I would understand having a death wish,” Kihyun answers. It comes out venomous and aggressive, and he hates how he sounds. How is it that yelling makes him feel both better and worse at the same time? He’s angry but he doesn’t know why he’s so angry, why his hands are shaking so much. 

“You know what I mean. Don’t tell me you’re not sick of it.”

"Of being quiet? Of course I am, but that doesn't mean I’m going to risk my life just to prove a damn point." The transmitter is still in Changkyun’s hands, his knuckles white with how hard he’s clenching the device.

"Isn’t that what you do every day, on the radio?"

"That’s different."

There’s a long pause, and Kihyun’s breathing heavily, as if he’s just ran a marathon.

"Your broadcast gave me hope,” Changkyun begins quietly, looking down at the transmitter. “And if I can do the same for someone else, then I want to do it. If there's even the slightest hint of a chance that I’m on to something, then I owe it to myself, I owe it to everyone, to go out and do something about it."

"Changkyun."

"You know, the day I tuned in for the first time, I was so ready to give up. There wasn't much point living anymore, all my friends were gone. The last I heard from my dad was months ago. It didn’t seem fair that I was still around. Just dumb luck kept me alive.”

_ Just stay here, just stay here safe with me, and we can pretend as if everything is alright. _

“I was - I was just this close to well, you know.” There’s a bitterness in Changkyun’s voice that Kihyun’s never heard before - not even in all those late night talks they’ve had, reminiscing about the old world, sharing all the regrets they’ve had in the moments leading up to the world collapsing. Come to think of it, Changkyun had barely mentioned anything about how he’d ended up in Seoul alone. “Then I heard your voice, over the radio, talking about - I still remember - how your childhood dream was to be a singer, how you practiced in your room after university classes all the time, and how that sucked because there was no such thing as music anymore in this world."

"And I thought, wow. This stranger over the air-ways, it's like he understands my soul."

He finally looks up again, meets Kihyun in the eye. That same determination is there, the one that Kihyun saw when they first met. It’s ironic how that’s what initially brought them together, but is driving them apart at this moment. "I’m sorry, hyung. I need to do this." 

"No, you don't. Don’t you see how dangerous it is? Stay safe, here, with me," Kihyun knows he’s trembling, knows he sounds like he’s begging. Maybe he’s crying, he can’t tell, there’s a current running through him, and he can’t feel anything apart from this icy sense of desperation that has gripped his entire being. 

"I’m not a child."

"You’re acting like one right now." He’s saying all the wrong things. All he wants to do is just to hold Changkyun, make him stay, make him understand why he’s so scared, but the path from his brain to his mouth is jumbled up.

"Stop babying me. I know what I'm doing."

"You mean, going around destroying public property, out there, where They can get to you?"

"At least I’m not hiding in my studio, thinking I’m smarter than everyone else out there! I’m just trying to make a difference."

"No, you're just a dumbass trying to get yourself killed all for some science experiment." The moment he yells this, he knows he’s gone too far. For the first time in their conversation, Changkyun looks angry, his eyes hard.

"Kyun, I didn't mean it that way," Kihyun says, trying to move closer to the younger boy, but he brushes him off, gets up from his seat, and even though the boy isn’t taller than him, Kihyun feels a shiver run through him as they stand face to face. He strides across the room, and grabs his backpack, haphazardly throwing clothes and other stray items into the bag. 

"Fine, if you think I’m such an idiot,” Changkyun says, hefting the backpack on his shoulder. Kihyun is frozen,  _ this can’t be happening. _ “Maybe I shouldn't intrude on your privacy anymore."

"No, Changkyun, wait -" He tries to unglue his feet from the ground, so that he can throw himself at Changkyun’s feet.  _ I didn’t mean what I said. I just wanted you to be safe. _

"Shhh - I'm about to open the door. Wouldn’t want a dumbass like me endangering you right?"

"Kyu -" 

But before Kihyun can reach him, the studio door closes. And once again, Kihyun finds himself alone, in the quiet.

-

Kihyun doesn’t leave the studio for the next few days. Curled tight into a small ball on one of the studio chairs, he watches the door, motionless. If he stares hard enough, if he pictures every single possible scenario that could happen, then maybe, Changkyun would come back. The studio door would open gently, quietly, and his head would peak in through the small gap, with that sheepish smile he sometimes wore when he said something he thought was funny.

Was the world really this quiet before he came along?

Nothing seems to make sense in his absence. He wants to be angry with Changkyun for his idealism and naiveness, but all he can think about is Changkyun’s eyes when he left, how cold and distant they were.  

In an attempt to keep some sense of normalcy, despite all of this, Kihyun tries to keep up the daily broadcast. He’s watched enough disaster movies to know that if you don’t have some sort of schedule or distraction, you’ll lose your mind eventually. 

“Changkyun, if you’re listening, I’m really sorry. Please com - whatever you’re doing out there, just be safe, alright?” His radio shows are short, full of empty silences, and unfinished sentences - embarrassing in how confessional they’ve become, particularly given how now he knows that his shows are actually going live to the rest of Korea.

Sleep comes uneasily every night, as if he’s now unused to sleeping without the presence of another warm body next to him. But perhaps sleeplessness is the better option compared to the murky, disjointed dreams he has. 

Of running, endless running, trying to find Minhyuk and Hyungwon, but never knowing where they are. Imagining them, eyes lifeless, strewn on the ground in some dusty corner of the city. Their last moments at the train station, how tightly he had held them then, how he should have done more to keep them safe. 

Of Changkyun, always faceless in his dreams, lost in the shadows. Always just a few steps ahead of him, but no matter how fast Kihyun tries to catch up, always remaining out of reach. His throat is closed up, he can’t call out to him. Doesn’t dare to say anything because They are everywhere, their scythes ready to pounce.

Of the many conversations they’ve had at night, side by side under the blankets.

“Hyung, this radio studio must be one of the safest places in the world right now.” 

“I’m sure there are people camped out in sound-proof rooms everywhere. Anyone with half a brain would eventually figure that out.”

“Well, I just feel lucky that I’m here with you.”

Of Changkyun, hurt, lying in a pool of blood, alone. That stupid stupid transmitter next to him, useless.

Of how he looked, that cold restrained fury, when he shut the studio door. Kihyun, frozen, unable to do anything but to watch him leave, over and over again.

One day, after jolting awake, he’s suddenly struck with the sudden fear that he’ll forget what Changkyun looks like. Possessed by this thought, he spends the whole morning, trying to sketch out the boy’s features, but everything comes out wrong. The pictures are a sad distortion of how he looks like, and at the end of the day, he’s surrounded by crumpled balls of paper, his hands pressed into his eyes. 

The only thing that’s keeping him going is the fact that explosions are going off every other day in different parts of Seoul. Immense in their sound, they’re the only proof that Changkyun is still alive, out there. And although Kihyun is terrified every time he hears one go off, he’s grateful for them. Each explosion is a sign that Changkyun is safe, that his device still works. 

So Kihyun lives like this for a few weeks - huddled in his studio, living off the stock-pile of supplies that him and Changkyun had amassed for the last of Winter and the start of Spring, holding his breath until he hears the next set of explosions take over a distant part of Seoul - always a place far away from the studio, never somewhere near. 

Then one day, the explosions stop.

Two days, three days, four days.

Maybe he’s just fixing his transmitter, maybe he’s inventing a new device. He’s just gathering supplies to make a new bomb, there are a million innocent reasons for their absence. A hundred other explanations apart from the one that Kihyun sees in his dreams every night.

“Changkyun, you’re still out there right?” Kihyun can barely get the words out. “There hasn’t been anything going off for almost two weeks. I don’t know what to thin - You can’t be dea - “ 

A week. A week and two days.

“Do you think it’s funny? Just give me a sign or something that you’re fine, stop being such a petty dumbass,” Kihyun all but yells into the microphone, then regrets every single second of it right after. “I’m sorry, I didn’t - just, Changkyun, you’re safe right? You have to be.” 

Two weeks. Two weeks and three days.

“If you had one wish, what would it be?” Changkyun asks one night. They’re huddled together, as close as they can get without actually physically touching, under a thick pile of blankets. It’s the dead of Winter, and everything is far far too cold. He can literally feel the younger boy shivering next to him, so he does what any logical person would do, and throws an arm around him, pulling him in closer.

“A furnace would be nice,” Kihyun replies, trying to keep his teeth from chattering despite the fact that his face feels red hot from the sheer relief that Changkyun hadn’t pushed him away.  _ He’s just as cold as you, this doesn’t mean anything,  _ he tells himself, but who is he kidding? His heart had been stolen a long, long time ago.

Changkyun hums non-committedly, “That’s a good answer. I thought I’d wish that we could go back to the way things were, before the bugs came, but then, we probably never would have met.”

“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”

“Why do you always make it so hard for me to compliment you?” Changkyun prods Kihyun hard in the side, causing him to jolt up in both pain and surprise.

Kihyun swats at him, which is hard to do given that his arm is hooked around Changkyun’s shoulder. “I would though. I would wish for everything to return to normal.”

“But this is the normal now, you know?” Changkyun says, after a long pause. He’s got that expression on when he’s thinking deeply, the one that always makes Kihyun wish he could dive deep into his mind and see how his thoughts worked. “I don’t think I’d want to change the past, because who I am, right now, is made up of what I’d done, who I was in the past. And I like my present self at this moment. All I want is to do my best, so my future self is as content as I am right now.”

“Then I wouldn’t want to change the past either,” Kihyun says. There’s so much light and warmth in Changkyun, that sometimes he can’t help but smile at the boy. “Because I like who you are at this moment too.”

Three weeks. Seoul is as silent as ever.

_ This is a good thing _ , he tries to convince himself.  _ It means the idiot’s finally taken your advice to heart, and make sure he’s safe somewhere. _ With everything back where it should be, he should be able to go back to how he used to live, in a silent city, with only his studio and his shows. The quiet is good after all, it means that everyone is safe.

Yet, his broadcasts become shorter and shorter, until all that’s left is him sitting in the studio, his finger on the ON AIR switch.  _ Hello Seoul, this is Kihyun, back again! Spring has come upon us, and it’ll probably just be a couple of weeks before we get to see the cherry blossoms,  _ the words are there in his mind, but he can’t seem to get any of them out. The studio air is static and still, heavy with everything that’s left unspoken, still weighing on his mind.

_ You’re safe, aren’t you? _

Kihyun can’t seem to bring himself to believe that anymore.

Perhaps that’s how he finds himself sitting in his apartment, staring out the window, watching the empty streets below. It’s a sunny day out, which doesn’t make sense, because he just feels cold all over, as if something vital inside him as gone out. The sunlight outside doesn’t seem to quite reach into the apartment (how odd, because he remembers spending many afternoons lazing in the sunny living room with Minhyuk and Hyungwon), and it’s shadows all around.

Taking a deep breath in, he steels himself for what he’s about to do. What surprises him is the lack of nerves or fear, it’ll be easy. It’d be over in just a few seconds. Just a few moments of pain, but anyway, doesn’t all life have to end eventually? How foolish he’s been, trying to escape something that’s inevitable. 

It’s easier, better, so much simpler if he chooses how he wants to leave. Tired of this silence, tired of this world, why delay it anymore.

Kihyun closes his eyes, opens his mouth, gets ready to let out the first note - 

when a strong gust of wind bursts through the room, and he opens his eyes, only to see a ghost.

Minhyuk is standing, framed in the doorway, eyes glimmering mischievously. Half a second later, Hyungwon appears next to him, a bemused expression on his face, as if well aware of what Kihyun had been about to do. 

“Mi - “ Kihyun stands, somehow, his legs are trembling, but his best friend’s already run over, slapping a hand over his mouth before he gets a syllable out. Minhyuk mimes zipping his mouth shut, as Hyungwon languidly strides over, as if this were any other day, like it’s a planned meeting after a long day of university classes.

“Surprise!” Minhyuk mouths, grinning that grin of his that makes it look like he’s emitting light from his body. He holds up a finger,  _ one second _ , before bolting out of the room. Hyungwon shakes his head, it’s a familiar gesture, one that Kihyun thought he’d never see again. 

When Minhyuk returns, he’s with three other guys, all that look around the same age as they do. “Meet my friends,” he mouths, and Kihyun winces slightly, because he’s so enthusiastic it almost feels like he’s screaming. But of course, if there was anyone in the world who'd able to make friends in the middle of a god damn apocalypse, it'd be his beagle of a best friend.

“We met them when we were trying to get back to Seoul." Minhyuk's trying to explain but he's mouthing the words too fast, too excitedly, so Hyungwon takes over, exaggerating each silent syllable so that Kihyun understands him. "Jooheon, Shownu-hyung and Wonho-hyung." In return, all three wave at him, with various levels of awkwardness, clearly unsure what to do in this situation as well.

Kihyun gives the ragtag group of three a small wave in return, a sense of incredulity washing over him. Could this be a hallucination on his part? Is he actually on his last breath, lying in a pool of his blood, imagining this whole scene to make dying a little less painful?

It doesn’t seem real - that his two room-mates, his best friends, are standing in front of him, safe and perfectly well. Not after all those nights of dreaming their deaths, of re-playing their last moments together over and over again. Something akin to relief washes over him, and his knees buckle but Minhyuk's there to catch him, Hyungwon's there to clasp him on the back, hold him up.

"We're here now," Minhyuk says quietly in Kihyun's ear, but Kihyun doesn't need him to say so. He sees it in their eyes,  _ Everything will be okay, we're together now. _

-

After attempting to catch up with each other through very bad miming (it's mostly Minhyuk excitedly trying to re-enact their entire trip from Seoul to Gwanju and back, Hyungwon watching with that fond, exasperated expression that Kihyun would never admit that he misses, the three newcomers looking entirely unfazed by Minhyuk’s exuberance, as if they are well used to it), Hyungwon grins, and leans in to whisper, "We have one more surprise."

Kihyun raises his eyebrows, but Minhyuk and Hyungwon only wear matching conspiratorial smiles, and gesture for him to follow them. While a year ago, such expressions would only make him wary of the upcoming prank he's sure they're about to pull on him, he just shrugs and trails after them, as they lead him out of the apartment, down the steps, out onto the street, and onwards.

Behind him, Jooheon, Shownu and Wonho follow closely, wearing similar secretive smiles, and Kihyun can't help but wonder what in the world is happening. But he can finally feel the warmth of the Sun against his skin, feel the light seep into his being, it's the kind of perfect spring day that in the past would warrant a picnic by the Han river. And after that Winter where he was trapped with only his own thoughts, Kihyun doesn't want to think too much. so he just walks, watching Minhyuk and Hyungwon in front of him, their hands grazing each other from time to time, as they lead the group through whatever's left of Seoul.

It's only after 10 minutes of walking that Kihyun starts to notice where they're at, realises that their surroundings are familiar ones, that this neighbourhood is his neighbourhood, and it's at this moment, Minhyuk turns around, with a knowing twinkle in his eyes.

In front of them is Kihyun’s radio station. But why would they even bring him here? While Minhyuk and Hyungwon did know that he had interned at the station during the semester, it wouldn’t make any sense for them to -

It's not possible.

Hyungwon tips his head in the direction of the door, and suddenly, Kihyun can't breathe.

_ There's no way he's here _ , but even as these doubts echo in his head, Kihyun finds himself running to the station, flinging open the door, racing down the corridor to the studio,  _ There's no way, there's no way _ , he throws open the studio door,  _ There's no way. _

But there, right there, sitting on his seat, is Changkyun, who looks up at him and smiles, as if he's been sitting there all this while, waiting for Kihyun to enter the room.

And Kihyun swears he blacks out for a second. Because the next thing he knows, enough time has passed for the other five to file into the room, with Hyungwon making sure the door's closed securely.

It's only now that the others are in the room that Changkyun's smile falters, and he clears his throat, before giving a small wave and saying, "Hi hyung."

At the sound of his voice, Kihyun sees red.

"You massive, massive asshole!" he hears himself shouting. He sees the others startling at the sudden increase in volume in his peripheral vision, but all these weeks of pent-up worry and frustration and anger and silence have taken its toll, and now that he's started, he can't stop. "How could you even do that to me? Do you know how fucking worried I've been? There's been literally no sign of you for ages, and now you're just sitting here, as if everything is okay!"

"Hyung, can you not get mad?" Changkyun's standing up, and a soft whine has crept into his voice, which causes his heart to physically ache because it's been so long and he's been so worried about the boy. It feels like he’s coming up for air after being close to drowning, after being resigned to sinking down into the bottom of the ocean.

But he's also so so pissed off, and he's not going to let Changkyun off the hook that easily even if  _ He's here, he's actually here. This isn't a dream, not this time.  _ "No! I thought you were dead, and you let that be the last fucking thing I said to you? You, you brat."

"Wow, these last words aren't any better either," There's a wide grin on Changkyun's face, and if it weren't for the fact that Kihyun’s trying to stay angry at him, he would be grinning back too, because his heart is singing, is singing so loudly with sheer joy and relief.

_ He's safe, and he's here. _

"Just - ugh - just get over here before I change my mind."

Changkyun crashes into him,  _ He's not dead, he's perfectly safe and sound _ , and Kihyun wraps his arms tightly around the younger boy, burying his head into his shoulder. "Kyun-ah," he starts, not even ashamed at the tears that are forming in his eyes or the way his voice cracks. "I'm so sorry about what I said. I never should have said any of it. What if they really were the last things I said to you? I’m so sor-"

"I know," Changkyun replies, although his voice is unsteady as well. “I'm sorry that I left you."

"We're good, right?" He has to ask, even if it makes him sound about 5 years old.

"We're great," Kihyun hears Changkyun mumble into his ear, and he pulls him closer, his presence is solid and warm, and it fills that emptiness that's been growing in his chest the past few weeks. "I won't leave you ever again."

"Good, I'm not going to let you."

-

"He literally said, 'I think it may be a better idea if we met in the studio instead, because hyung is going to yell at me, whether there are monsters around or not'," deadpans Hyungwon, before breaking out into cackles. "Kihyun-ah, it's good that an apocalypse hasn't stopped you from nagging people to death."

"Shut up, frog," Kihyun shoots back, but there's no bite to it. After the multiple reunions today, feeling like he’s been thawed out from this icy shell that’s built around him the past few weeks, he doesn't have much energy for anything else. All he wants to do is sit in this studio, with Changkyun by his side  _ He's safe! _ , and think of nothing for the rest of the day. "You're just lucky I haven't kicked you out of my studio yet."

"Last I remembered, you were just an intern here. and now you're a studio owner?" Hyungwon replies, raising an eyebrow.

Kihyun opens his mouth to retort, but before he can say anything, Minhyuk barrels over, throwing his arms around both Hyungwon and Kihyun, "Aaaah, I missed you two idiots bickering so much."

"Excuse me, I believe I had the highest GPA out of the three of us," Hyungwon scoffs, but Kihyun doesn't miss the smile on his face. 

Minhyuk rolls his eyes and sighs loudly, "What a friggin' nerd."

"You must be glad that university's cancelled, because you never would have graduated," replies Hyungwon coolly, which results in Minhyuk cuffing him on the head and darting away before he can retaliate.

He crosses the room to join Jooheon and Changkyun, who seem to be deep in discussion about the various types of music that Kihyun has in the studio, judging by how they keep changing the song playing in the background. it takes everything for Kihyun to not just watch Changkyun - the way his eyes light up at a new track, how his laughter bursts out of him when he finds something funny. Perhaps it’s karma for all those rom-coms that Minhyuk made him watch but he scoffed at, but he finally understands when the protagonist goes  _ I could sit here and watch him all day. _

"So," Hyungwon starts, and Kihyun suddenly realises that they've been sitting in silence for a while. "How are you and Kkukkung?"

"Kkukkung?"

"Yea, that's the nickname Wonho-hyung gave him," he answers. "Because he's so cute, like a puppy."

"Is that what it is?"

"Oh my god, are you jealous?"

"No!" Kihyun protests, but he knows his best friend can see straight through him. "Anyone can call Changkyun anything they want, as long as he's okay with it."

"I never thought I'd see the day. You must really like him, huh?" Hyungwon leans in close, his expression is gleeful and there's nothing Kihyun would like to do more than to wipe that smirk off his face.

"Are you going to tell me how are things between you and the puppy?" Kihyun shoots back, hoping that it would shut his friend up.

What he doesn't expect, however, is for Hyungwon's expression to soften, nor does he expect that soft smile - unlike anything he's seen on the frog's face before, "Yea actually, we're great. better than great."

Before he has a chance to react to this (because he  _ knew _ it was just a matter of time before his two friends finally admitted their terribly obvious feelings for each other), Hyungwon turns back to Kihyun, the smirk back in place, "See, that wasn't so hard, was it? All that can be yours too, if you talk to him."

"It's not the same."

“Why not?” Hyungwon’s tone is concerned, now wearing a slight frown.

“Well for one, I don’t even know if he feels the same way.”

Hyungwon chuckles, and shakes his head, “Please. He literally couldn’t stop talking about you, even before he knew that we were your roommates.”

“That’s technically impossible. You would have been dead if he was jabbering so much.”

“See, that’s what you get for chasing Kkukkung away. He’s got this device that throws up a shield of white noise. It muffles all the sound inside the circle.”

“What?”

“The boy’s a genius,” Hyungwon nods in the direction of Changkyun, who’s busy dancing along to the song playing in the background. In his enthusiasm, he trips over a cable, and almost face-plants on the floor, as Minhyuk and Jooheon burst into laughter, Wonho cooing over Changkyun from another side of the room. “He saved us, actually, with that white noise transmitter of his. Literally ran into the middle of a nest of Them to help us get away.”

Kihyun chokes on air, “He  _ what? _ ” 

"Look, Ki, we’re here now, we’re fine, aren’t we?” Despite his cool response, Hyungwon places a comforting hand on Kihyun’s shoulder, well aware of the latter’s tendency to over-think. “You need to trust us more, trust him, in fact.”

“It’s not that I don’t -”

“He didn’t really go into why he was alone, on the outskirts of Seoul, but I’m guessing you two had an argument about what he was doing,” Hyungwon raises an eyebrow, as if daring Kihyun to contradict him. “He was quite torn up about it, thought you were too mad at him so he didn’t dare to come back.”

“Idiot, I was worried for weeks.”

“Told you your anger would get you into trouble one day,” his best friend is smirking again. “You chased away one of the softest boys known to mankind. It pissed me off so much when I found out the super cool hyung he kept talking about was actually just you.”

Kihyun opens his mouth, ready with a comeback

“So stop being a dumbass. I know how your mating ritual includes endless insults, but maybe it’s time you moved on from that,” the younger boy continues. “I can’t stand this pining.”

“You’re welcome to leave.”

“Like you’d ever let me out of your sight again.”

-

For the first time in two years since the world ended, Kihyun gets slightly wasted. 

Somehow, somewhere, after it’s established that everyone’s staying in the studio for the evening, Hyungwon produces three bottles of soju and four bottles of beer from his backpack, and everyone promptly decides to take a shot, or two, or five. 

“We all decided to save it for a special occasion,” Minhyuk says, as they all cheers to their first drink. That’s rich, given how much of a light-weight the boy is. 

Surprisingly, it’s Wonho that passes out first. His face going red with the alcohol, as he breaks into random fits of giggles. At first, Kihyun is amused by how clingy he is, until he launches himself at the people seated close to him, namely: Shownu and Changkyun (he ignores the stab of jealousy that shoots through him as Changkyun supports the laughing Wonho, reminding himself that the latter could probably just snap him in half easily).

Minhyuk is out next. He’s sprawled across Hyungwon’s lap, talking louder than usual about whatever that’s crossing his mind (“ _ Don’t you think that we should get a dog? I can’t always be the cutest in our group. Oh oh, but Jooheonie is so cute too, he can be our pet, right Wonnie?” _ ), and Kihyun is ever so glad that the room is sound-proof as Jooheon chokes mid-drink, sputtering as he tries to recover from Minhyuk’s mindless comments.

Between Wonho’s laughter, Minhyuk’s ramblings, and the playlist that Jooheon and Changkyun had set up, the room has never been louder, has never been so full of life. Maybe it’s the alcohol speaking (because God knows how two years of sobriety has down to his alcohol tolerance), but there’s this sense of happiness bubbling inside of Kihyun, a feeling so foreign that he’s almost uncomfortable by its presence at first.

“Don’t worry, Ki,” Hyungwon says. From his droopy eyes and slurred speech, it’s evident that the frog may have had too much to drink too. Perhaps subconsciously, he’s combing his fingers through Minhyuk’s hair, as Minhyuk’s commentary gets slower and more drawn out, which they both know is a sign that he’s about to fall asleep. It’s such a tender action that Kihyun has to look away. “Kkukkung’s set up his genius sound interferer thingy around the studio as well.”

Changkyun lets out a high-pitched laugh, his face flushed. “That’s right, I’m a genius,” he proclaims, as he attempts to direct a clumsy wink at Kihyun, from across the circle they’re seated in. It doesn’t quite work because both his eyes close at once, and his cheeks are bright red, and he’s the furthest away from any semblance of being cool, but Kihyun thinks he’s never looked any cuter. 

It’s hard to keep his thoughts in check: how grateful he is that Minhyuk and Hyungwon are safe, how strange to be around so much sound and noise without so little fear, how much he’s missed Changkyun, how he’s forgotten how hard it is trying to deny how very much attracted he may be to the younger boy. Everything’s muddled up in his head, and the alcohol doesn’t help. There’s too much going on, he feels like he could just explode from all this emotion.

“I’m probably the greatest scientist in the world!” Changkyun’s declaration brings him back to reality. 

“Kyun-ah, I think you’ve had a little too much to drink,” Kihyun says, crossing over to take the bottle of beer that the younger boy is holding in his hand. That’s a little hypocritical, given that the room’s swaying for him as well, but Kihyun has always prided himself for being the responsible friend while drinking, and he’s not about to give up that reputation.

Changkyun pouts. “I’m not a baby,” he says, whiny, trying to wrestle out of Kihyun’s grip around his hand.

Kihyun freezes, suddenly cold all over. His heart begins pounding too fast in his chest,  _ I’m sorry, don’t leave.  _

As if realising what he had just said, what had happened the last time he had said something similar, Changkyun looks horrified. “Hyung, I didn’t mean it that way.” And the fear in Changkyun’s eyes makes Kihyun hate himself for how irrationally he had reacted to an otherwise innocuous comment. There’s still so many doubts in in his mind, it feels miraculous that Changkyun is back by his side, willing to accept him, even after the shitty way he had behaved.

“I know. And I know you’re not,” Kihyun replies, his fingers are still wrapped around Changkyun’s wrist. Strange, how he can feel Changkyun’s pulse. It’s steady, just like how the younger boy is in his life. A constant, solid presence.

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Hyungwon’s curious gaze on him. This conversation is too private to be happening in front of his two best friends, admittedly one drunk enough not to notice anything happening, much less a group of strangers. Kihyun shoots Hyungwon a pleading look, and the younger immediately starts a thread of conversation with Jooheon and Shownu, pouring them another shot from the half bottle of soju left.

“Please don’t be upset,” Changkyun says, his voice low, his eyes fixed on Kihyun’s hand. There’s an undercurrent of worry in his words, as if he’s well aware of the thoughts racing in Kihyun’s mind.

“No, Kyun, you’re right,” his voice is shaking. Perhaps drinking wasn’t the best idea tonight, given the emotional roller-coaster he’d gone through today. “I shouldn’t have treated you like you didn’t know any better. I’m sorry for saying all those horrible things.”

“I told you, there’s nothing to apologise for.”

“I just wanted you to be safe, but I went about it the wrong way.” His face is damp, slightly, and Kihyun realises that there are tears running down his cheek.  _ I’m so glad you’re back, thank you for coming back to me. _

“Don’t cry, hyung,” Changkyun looks panicked, quickly setting down the beer bottle to brush the tears from Kihyun’s face. His fingers are heavy and warm, clumsy from having too much to drink, and although in any other circumstance, Kihyun would have been embarrassed to be treated like a child, he’s just so thankful that Changkyun is still by his side. “I’m here now.” 

“You’re the smartest, kindest person I know,” he blurts out, taking the chance to catch Changkyun’s hands in his own. It’s important that Changkyun knows this. Everything that he’d never had the chance to say to the boy before he left, how wonderful and amazing he thinks Changkyun is. At the back of his mind, Kihyun knows it’s the alcohol that’s lowering his guard, but he finds that he doesn’t care. “You know that right?”

“How can you say that, when you’re right in front of me?”

“Brat,” Kihyun shoots back, with a watery laugh.

“You know you love me,” and despite Changkyun’s smug bravado, the over joviality of his tone, Kihyun sees through it, senses the hesitation in the boy’s words. 

“Yea,” Kihyun answers, interlocking their fingers. He doesn’t dare to look up at Changkyun when he does so, afraid that he’s been reading the boy all wrong, but Changkyun curls his fingers in towards his, and Kihyun lets out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding in. “Yea, I really think I do.”

-

The next morning, Kihyun wakes up with a splitting headache that doesn’t seem justifiably fair for the amount of soju and beer he’d drank. But all that doesn’t matter because he also wakes up to find that he’d fallen asleep next to Changkyun, their legs tangled together, the younger boy’s arm thrown lazily around his waist. Changkyun’s turned towards him, his breathing even, and Kihyun doesn’t think he’s ever woken up to as beautiful, as wonderful a sight as this.

“Aw Ki, look at you,” cooes Minhyuk from across the room, startling Kihyun, who had definitely not been expecting anyone else to be awake. Unfortunately, his best friend is grinning at him from the other side of the room, arm wrapped around the still sleeping Hyungwon. “Puppy love is the cutest thing.”

“Shut up,” Kihyun immediately snaps back, his face turning bright red. “Don’t wake everyone else up.”

In an exaggerated fashion, Minhyuk mouths an  _ Okay okay! _ which despite him not saying a word, Kihyun can hear him yell. He mimes a shooing motion, jabs in Changkyun’s direction a couple of times, makes a kissy face, winks and does a thumbs up so rapidly Kihyun’s tired from just watching him. Satisfied, the boy flops back down next to Hyungwon, burying his head in the nook of his shoulder.

Despite himself, how disgustingly  _ soft _ it makes him seem, Kihyun can’t help but smile at his two best friends. While he’s annoyed that he hadn’t been there when his two idiots finally, finally confessed to each other (yet another thing that this world has taken from him, but perhaps it’s time he stopped keeping track), he’s so glad that they have each other, that they seem to fit so well together.

“You look cute like that,” comes a sleepy mumble from his side. Kihyun looks down, at a yawning Changkyun, who apparently had woken up sometime in the middle of Minhyuk’s pantomime.

“ _ You _ look cute like that,” counters Kihyun, before he has the chance to think about it. Can he say things like that now? Whatever they are, it’s too open a setting to talk last night, but you don’t just hold hands with someone for the whole night and assume everything’s still platonic between the two of you… right?

Love - he had half meant it as a joke when he replied the younger boy the night before. It’s not like Kihyun has never dated before. He’s gone on dates, kissed a few people, written skeletons of sappy love songs about crushes, he knows what infatuation, what affection, adoration feels like. But love, he’s not sure about that - it’s something too big, too overwhelming, too impossible to even think about in this world. 

Changkyun’s looking at him with an amused expression, “Now you look like you’re thinking really hard.”

“Can’t help it, I’m not as smart as you.”

“That’s true, I do recall someone very adorable telling me I was the smartest person they knew last night,” Changkyun’s rolled to his side, propping himself up with an elbow to look up at Kihyun.

“That person can take back everything he may or may not have said.”

Changkyun’s face drops into a pout. “Harsh, hyung.”

Kihyun laughs, and the fleeting thought of kissing Changkyun right here, right now crosses his mind for a second. But it feels too soon, it doesn’t feel real yet that he’s here next to him, that he could reach out and hold his hand, and it would be perfectly alright. Instead, he asks, “Want to go for a walk?”

“Now?” the boy looks around, at the sleeping forms around the rest of the studio.

“Just around the block, we’ll be back before anyone asks.”

“You make a very compelling argument,” Changkyun grins, his dimples showing. “Take me away, Mr Yoo.” 

-

Outside, the air is fresh and cool, the Sun just warm enough so that they’re not too cold in the Spring breeze. As soon as they’re out the studio doors, Changkyun slips his hand into Kihyun’s, lacing their fingers together. It feels so natural, so perfectly simple, that Kihyun has the urge to laugh.

They’re not where the cherry blossom trees are at, and it’s not time for the flowers to bloom yet, but maybe one day, in the next few weeks, they could take a slow walk there. If the frog was right about Changkyun’s noise-cancelling device, maybe they could even have a picnic underneath the trees, all seven of them. He’d have to ask Changkyun to teach him how the device worked, maybe even ask him how he could help him construct the rest of the inventions he’s sure are brewing in the boy’s mind. 

Maybe they could even start to think about taking back the city, creating spaces where you didn’t have to constantly worry about making sound. Perhaps they could start with an auditorium, somewhere with good acoustics, where you could really feel the music go through you. They could drag a few speakers from the studio, Changkyun’s iPod had some good tracks that he could definitely learn. A concert, that would be nice.

It’s been a while since there’s something in the future that Kihyun is looking forward to, but perhaps, things could be different now. 

With Changkyun’s hand in his, feeling like the closest thing to home that he’s ever felt in a while, with the knowledge of his best friends safe and sound, with these three new people that he’s just met but is sure he’ll grow to be family with, with all these possibilities shining in front of him, Kihyun thinks maybe he’s ready, for whatever may happen next, for the monsters that may come tearing in, for the conflict that’s inevitable amongst even the closest friends.

And there’ll be conversations that’ll have to happen between him and Changkyun: defining what they are, apologising again for what had happened, letting him know how wonderful and strange and perfect he is, and that whatever he’s planning, Kihyun is ready to support him, ready to be by his side through it all. 

Because what Kihyun realises now is that for everything that there is to be scared of in this world, there’s no point in hiding away and wishing for things to go back the way they once were. There’s no safety in living in the past, and the only way is to keep looking forward, moving forward.

Hope may be a scarce resource in this world, but he thinks - no, he  _ knows _ with Changkyun in the lead, with the seven of them together (maybe they were bound by fate to meet), they can bring music back to this silent world again.

But before all that has to happen, he’ll just enjoy this moment, strolling through the street, holding hands with a boy he adores more than words can describe, possibly even loves. Everything else that comes after, they’ll figure it out together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that brings A Quiet Place to an end! I'm rather proud of the fact that I'd manage to finish it, given that this has been brewing in my head since I first watched the movie.
> 
> Do leave a comment if you enjoyed it! It's my first MX fic, so I'm hoping I got the character dynamics right, and this was mostly an exercise in character study to be honest.
> 
> Anyway, feel free to find me on Twitter at @legofroggo! All I do is retweet HyungHyuk and scream about MX and BTS.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I've been working on this since May, and it's not even done yet! This is probably shaping up to be the longest thing I've written in a very long while, although I'd originally intended for this to just be a one-chapter fic.
> 
> (I'm sure I'll come up with a better title in the mean time.)
> 
> Let me know what you think! You can also scream at me (please do!!!!) on Twitter (@legofroggo).


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